HOT PLATE RADIO UPDATE

Here's an update on the HOT PLATE RADIO SHOW.
Recording the pilot show has taken forever. We've done a ton of recording already, but a few recording sessions remain.
  Next Monday night's panel discussion for the pilot episode will feature local seers Thomas A. Alderson and Keith Grimes. I've picked these luminaries for several reasons.
  1. They post on Facebook more times than I check Facebook, which is a lot.
  2. They both have numerous Trump voters reading their posts. I seem to have shedded all of mine. Unless they are reading and not commenting, which is of course quite possible.
  3. They both, like me, are attempting to sustain a dialogue with Trump voters that avoids disdain, yelling, etc. I'd like to reiterate here my basic attitude, which has to date annoyed liberals more than it's mollified conservatives--
I don't think all Trump voters are racists, or stupid. I believe many or most of them chose their candidate for the same kinds of reasons liberals chose theirs.
  4. Like me, they don't care for Trump, but that's not the same thing as a disdain for conservatism. Unlike many of my friends, I respect conservative philosophy as much as I respect the liberal alternative. My objections are with the political parties and many of the politicians, not with the intellectual foundation.

KARL STRAUB HOUSE CONCERT -- FRI FEB. 17, Bethesda, Md.

http://www.aqueoustudio.com/camarillo_concerts/index.html
I'm posting this link here so it's easy to find.
  Karl Straub and Eric Brace will play acoustic guitars and sing original songs, inc. material from their musical, "Hangtown Dancehall."
  PLEASE NOTE.
This is the perfect show for those in the Straubinical community who get frustrated when they can't hear Karl's lyrics over his loud band and his loud electric guitar. You'll be able to hear each word at this gig, allowing you to move to the next level of Straubinical existence, where you can hear the words with pristine clarity, but have no idea what they mean.

AMERICA-- THE BACK STORY (PART ONE)

  Trump is doing us a great favor by forcing us to think about what America is, or could be, or should be.
  The back story-- there's never been a consensus on what America "means." Early on, America was designed and defined by two very different groups of people-- white businessmen who wanted government to help white businessmen, and white businessmen who wanted government to help white businessmen, but also address the concerns of white men who weren't in business but would like to be. I've read books about conservative philosophy where the ownership of property appears to be the main thing government is designed to protect; in this framing, a government that gets involved with anything else is skating dangerously close to barbarous overreach.
  Eventually, there was a grudging acceptance that many situations would require government to do other things than keep non-businessmen off your lawn. Angry hordes of foreigners seemed to be gathering everywhere at once; this phenomenon was occurring mostly in foreign countries, but to a great extent foreigners could even be found on our own soil, many of whom spent so much of their time in America it was almost as if they lived here. It was an intolerable situation, of course, and we didn't tolerate it.

WISHING AMERICANS WOULD READ THE PAPER IS LIKE WISHING A UNICORN WOULD FILL AN INSIDE STRAIGHT

  When we focus our outrage on big ticket items like the recent refugee/travel kerfuffle, it's easy to miss the smaller and quieter moments of idiocy.
  On a recent day packed with affairs of state, our president bragged to the Australian Prime Minister about his electoral college win, before angrily accusing the PM of trying to foist on us "the next Boston bombers." He then clarified his feelings by telling Malcolm Turnbull that this chat, the fifth he'd had that day with a world leader, was "the worst call by far," before abruptly ending it 35 minutes ahead of schedule. I don't know what "abruptly" (the Post's word) means, exactly-- the paper seemed reluctant to literally say that Trump hung up on Turnbull-- but it's hard not to see Trump as a fascinating mashup of stereotypical juvenile behavior associated with both boys and girls. One moment he's a teen boy bragging about a basketball buzzer beater, the next he's a teen girl wearing a Turbie Twist, blurting out something hurtful about her friend's acne, and then hanging up and listening to Taylor Swift on Spotify.
  Yesterday, hoping to begin Black History Month on a boffo note, our President said these words out loud-- "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice."
  Meanwhile, in a rural Maryland town, the Post interviewed a handful of waitresses and retirees who like Trump because he talks tough, and keeps our country safe.
  Here's what needs to be understood by the liberals protesting Trump's election, or his actions, or whatever it is they believe they are demonstrating against.